Carl Levin wants to suspend aid to Egypt

The chairman of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee said U.S. aid to Egypt should be suspended until the interim government schedules new elections and begins amending the constitution.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters Monday evening that even if the Obama administration declines to call the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi a coup, which would trigger revocation of about $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid, lawmakers could still act by passing a new law or joint resolution cutting off the money flow to embattled country.

He’s got fellow backers in the Senate: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) declared suspending aid “is the right thing to do at this time” on Monday, and Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) has also said aid should be cut off. But Levin also said he did not believe there’s currently majority support in his chamber for such a move.

White House press secretary Jay Carney would not call Morsi’s overthrow a coup on Monday but did say cutting off aid “would not be in our best interests.” Logically that statement means the administration does not believe Morsi’s ouster was a coup, Levin said.

“The law says if there is a military coup, the aid gets suspended,” Levin said. “By saying that the aid would continue, the administration is therefore — I guess necessarily — saying that they don’t consider this a coup.”

The interim government said Monday evening it would fast-track elections to early 2014, but Levin said six months between Morsi’s ouster and new elections “seems like a long time” given Morsi only served as president for about a year. That schedule did not seem to dissuade Levin’s belief that aid should be temporarily suspended given the manner in which the government changed hands in Egypt.

“I’m not unhappy with the change. I’m very unhappy as to how it came about,” he said.